Thursday

When plans were scuttled last year for a house of hospitality to be opened by the Springfield Dominican religious community at St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Parish, there was anxiety and disappointment.

There was also a re-visitation of the ministry.

Now the congregation of sisters is rebooting the project on familiar ground: the Enos Park neighborhood, where two other sisters already live in a house.

The idea for "Cor Unum" (Latin for "One Heart"), which will be housed in a residence in the 900 block of North Fifth Street and is currently undergoing extensive rehabbing after being unoccupied for three decades, is a mutual support between three Dominicans and up to three lay women who want to immerse themselves in community living, prayer and service.

The pairing is unique for the congregation in Springfield, though other models of that living exist elsewhere.

"This is a modest project," admitted Sister Beth Murphy, who will live at "Cor Unum." "It's exciting, but it's not new in the history of the church. This is kind of similar to what (our founder) St. Dominic envisioned 800 years ago."

The lay women, who will be single and between 21 and 35 years old, won't be charged rent but are expected to contribute to the "financial responsibility" for the household and for food. The women must be working or enrolled in school full-time.

Murphy and the other two Dominicans — Sister Lori Kirchman and Sister Mary Clare Fichtner — all who currently reside at Sacred Heart Convent on West Monroe Street, will have a say in who lives in the house, which is expected to be occupied by year's end.

The arrangement doesn't commit the women to a professed religious life.

Plans for "Cabrini House," which had the blessing of diocesan leadership, excited the north-side parish where the Dominicans once taught, lived and ministered, but it was thwarted last spring when the use of a vacant convent fell through.

Murphy, Kirchman and Fichtner all left their ministries last year in anticipation of launching "Cabrini House." Kirchman, 59, and Fichtner, 77, had both been living and working in Missouri.

"It was frustrating and it was hard," admitted Kirchman.

"But we weren't exactly devastated," added Fichtner quickly.

"We figured we would land somewhere," noted Kirchman. "We knew the community was still committed to a house of hospitality, but we didn't know where."

While a search progressed, the three started meeting regularly, often at Jubilee Farm, the Dominicans' center for ecology and spirituality on Old Jacksonville Road, to discuss and pray about the ministry.

"That helped us start thinking differently about the project," said Murphy, 59.

The trio launched prayer sessions for a broader group of women along with social activities, like movie night and game night. Those, said Kirchman, helped develop a web of relationships and an understanding of what the women were searching for in terms of life and spirituality.

"They're looking for prayer, a way of deepening their relationship with God and a way of deepening their relationships with other people, too," she said. "I think they have an attitude of serving other people.

"We hope we can connect all that."

In multiple conversations with college-age men and women, Murphy said she came away feeling that the students "felt oppressed by the need to be plugged into social media all of the time." Murphy, the communications director for the Dominicans, pointed to a 2015 study called "How We Gather" researched by two Harvard Divinity School students on what millennials (18-to-34 year olds) were seeking in life.

"It's everything we do (as a congregation)," said Murphy. "It might look different, but the core is there: community, a life of faith and spirituality, service. One of the things I found really intriguing was accountability. They want people to help hold them accountable."

Millennials, though, aren't beating down church doors. More than one-third of them, according to a Pew Research Center study, don't claim an affiliation with a religion, but seek out secular-type offerings, like Crossfit, that give them a sense of community and accountability.

"It's finding a tribe, in a way, I guess," she said.

Kallie Cox of Springfield had "a stereotypical television" view of sisters, until she met with them at venues like Black Sheep Cafe for a Sexual Assault Awareness Month event and the Illinois Capitol for a Poor People's Campaign rally.

"I have learned that the sisters are amazing, caring, easy-going people who are involved with everything," said Cox, who will be attending Southern Illinois University Carbondale this fall. "They are passionate about helping others and getting out into the community to make a difference."

Rocio Hurtado met Dominicans at the University of Illinois Springfield at an immigration rights workshop shortly after moving here from Cicero. The Dominicans, said Hurtado, who is an American of Mexican descent but is not Catholic, painted "a more positive picture of the (Catholic Church)."

The encounter led to Hurtado, 30, participating in social activities with members of the community.

"It's refreshing that they value relationships whether I agree with them completely or not," she said.

Murphy is the only one of the three who has lived with members outside of the religious congregation in her professional life. She said that experience in Chicago was "always enriching, not always easy and in one instance extremely difficult.

"Even knowing how challenging it could be, I would choose it again."

"One of the biggest differences," said Fichtner, "is that (the young women) will have a say of what life is like in the house."

The house that will become "Cor Unum" was acquired by Fletcher Farrar, president of Old Neighborhood Rehab Inc., from the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association. The Dominican congregation has "a rent-to-own" agreement with Farrar, who is also editor/CEO of Illinois Times.

Murphy said she felt excited about moving into the neighborhood with what could be a model for the future.

"There's an old saying that 'God writes straight with crooked lines,'" she said. "It turned out be good for us (to wait).

"We believe this little experiment is the next step in how religious respond to the church in the world. Religious life is always meant to be a prophetic voice."

Learn more about Cor Unum by calling 787-0481 or visiting www.Springfieldop.org/Cor-unum.

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